Since the financial crisis of 2007, the global financial market has been characterized by instability. At the same time the banks? lending rates and its link to the reporänta have been in the spotlight in various debates in the media. The government with Anders Borg leading the charge has criticized the banks for not lowering their lending rates when the reporänta has been lowered. The banks defend themselves by saying that the reporänta does not have a direct link to their lending rates anymore.

Uppsatsen innehåller en studie av hur etiska regler, vilka framför allt återfinns inom advokatyrket, påverkar konkurrensen och de konflikter som uppstår mellan de svenska och europeiska konkurrensreglerna och dessa etiska regler. Mer specfikt identifieras vilka konkurrenshämmande effekter dessa regler medför, och vilka alternativ som finns för att kombinera etiska regler och konkurrensregler på ett sådant sätt att minsta möjliga skada uppstår för konsumenterna av advokattjänster. Resultatet av uppsatsen är att vissa etiska regler bör elimineras eller modifieras, eftersom de påverkar marknaden på ett negativt sätt utan att medföra motsvarande vinster annorstädes. The essay contains a studie on how ethical rules, here represented by the rules for the law profession, influence the competition. Furthermore are the conflicts that appear between the ethical rules and the Swedish and European competition rules identified and analysed.

In todays society the demand on companies to deliver better project management is crucial for them to survive. The higher demands from clients make older project management weak and unreliable. In the constructions sector more and more companies are created and the competition is higher than ever. The clients are aware of the higher competition in the construction sector. This has resulted that construction companies must now make their project management more efficient to create better projects and better relationship with clients. The purpose of this thesis arose from this problem in the construction sector.

In today?s world there are plenty of technological tools and methods available with the purpose to increase peoples motivation for a healthier lifestyle. One such tool is a so-called activity tracker which uses sensors to log the user's everyday life and present it as automatic feedback. Gamification is a new and successful method to motivate and engage people in fulfilling tasks by using game elements and mechanics. In this study, five participants were instructed to use the activity tracker and pedometer Fitbit Flex daily for three weeks. Halfway through the study the participants were ranked and listed against each other in a ranking list in order to evoke competition.

A buyer of a new car is often offered a various selection of warranties. A warranty can e.g. exist in the form of an extended new car warranty. However, some manufacturers demand that the car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the validity of an extended warranty. In the thesis I analyse whether such a contractual term is incompatible with today?s legislation and I argue for when such a term is to be seen as unfair.

Effects of climate change, urbanization and global homogenization are resulted in the degradation of land and losses of natural habitats. Ecological design integrates nature into urban environment by respecting natural ecological principles and processes and creating resilient urban biotopes which also can be used by local urban communities. The aim of the thesis is to answer the research questions: How ecological design principles can be applied for re-design of Toledo Riverfront (with requirements of the design competition)? and What is the ecological design in landscape architecture? I participated in the USA design competition with the aim to create a vision and redesign of Toledo Riverfront in Ohio State, USA. The site is located in the south point of Lake Erie. As a result of a long industrial activity, riverfront of Toledo had been transformed into inaccessible and abandoned brownfields. In my proposal I applied ecological design principles on three scales: the city of Toledo by reinforcing of ecological connection and creating green corridors along the river; the intermediate scale by suggesting public parks along the river front and on the fine level by proposing detailed design including remediation of the site and use of dredged material.

Swedish school system is today victim of facing competition. Today sees the school leadership the students like customers whom they depend to operate their school. But I have asked myself, what will be the new students see and how much this spectacle in both money and time that project will cost for the municipality and school teachers. The question is if whether the school will be better when the competition becomes school or just better marketed? I'm interested in how clearly ideologies emerge in schools brochures if we study them at critically and analytically way.

This thesis project focuses on the need for better tools for analyzing competition for forest fuels in Sweden, in particular how policy measures may influence the market and involved actors in different regions of Sweden. Raw materials from the forest have for long constituted important inputs in the Swedish forest industry. Today some of these raw materials are increasingly used as inputs also in bioenergy production, largely driven by bioenergy promoting policies, and there are signs of increased competition for forest fuels which may have various and uncertain effects on the industries in question. The thesis project explores the possibilities to adapt previously used forest sector equilibrium models into a new model suitable for analysis of Swedish forest fuel markets, called the Swedish Forest Sector Trade Model (SFSTM). The approach takes into account regional differences in supply and demand for 23 types of products produced and/or used by eight types of producers, plus consumers, in five different regions (four Swedish and one international).

Background Svenska Spel is a regulated company run by the state and government, where CSR, community and social responsibility is in focus. The highly regulated Swedish gaming market has in recent years become more exposed to competition by foreign unregulated betting companies thru Internet.Problem discussion There are two views regarding CSR and how they are affecting competitive advantage and profitability. On one hand, it suggests that companies foremost shall focus profits and act in the best interest of the shareholders. On the other hand, it connects CSR to be a contributor to competitive advantage that increases the company?s profitability.Problem formulation Svenska Spel is competing with other betting companies who doesn´t act under the same conditions, betting companies that don´t have a responsibility to the state.

This essay describes the Swedish furniture business and its strong competition between domestic and foreign producers. As the demand on higher development speed grows stronger, alongside a fierce competition between the companies, long lasting and unique qualities such as customer relations and strong brand names become crucial. Nowadays many furniture producers chose to sell their products through retailers and they therefore miss out on invaluable direct contact with their customers. Consequently, this means that they lack the perquisite to build relations or more importantly, to communicate their brand.To illustrate the problem a case study and a survey have been carried out. The study compares the strategic marketing works between producers who have own concept stores and those who uses retailers.

In light of the coming workforce shortage in Sweden the competition for human capital will be intensified on the market where employers compete in order to attract skilled labor. The competition will be most noticeable in the knowledge-intense industries, where the employees are seen as the companies? most valuable asset. The purpose of this paper is to examine how small knowledge-intensive companies can improve their position in the labor market by using the HR-model People Capability Maturity Model in order to affect their companies' Employer Brand. We take the basis of the theoretical framework in which we examine and identify the key dimensions of the Employer Brand concept and present the People Capability Maturity Model more closely.

As an assurance company has an overconsolidation which must be settled the question that needs to be solved is how to do it. Which are the legal rules that the assurance company has to look after? What is a settling of overconsolidation in a legal meaning? Does an assurancepolicy have to be decided? Why did not the Swedish competition authority (Konkurrensverket) accept the policy from SPP and what can be the consequenses of that decision? Are there any tax rules that needs to be solved?.

Hinder för marknadstillträde är viktigt i många avseenden. För ett företag som slår sig in på en ny marknad är det viktigt att veta vilka hinder det möter. För konkurrensrättsliga myndigheter är det nödvändigt att veta vilka hinder som existerar för att exempelvis kunna avgöra om ett företag har en dominerande ställning. Det är också nödvändigt att känna till hindren för att säkerställa en fri tillgång till marknaden. Det saknas dock en generellt accepterad definition av hinder för marknadstillträde.

The cellular market is today suffering from great customer dissatisfaction. Simultaneously, the services offered by the different cellular providers are very homogenous, causing strict competition where various price strategies have been the main mean of battle. From a business perspective, implementing pricing strategies, to keep up with increased network investments, is a short term solution.In a market characterized by lacking customer satisfaction and harsh competition, research has shown the importance of highlighting customer relations in marketing. This type of marketing, which one could refer to as relationship marketing, is considered an efficient, economic, and strategic method of showing the importance of customer loyalty. To get insight in the relationship between the customers and the cellular providers, as well as to show the importance of relationship marketing, this study has used qualitative interviews to find what develops strong customer loyalty.The results showed that increased customer loyalty is achieved when an emotional bond is created.

The aim of this thesis is, from a business perspective, to examine how the pharmacy chain Medstop is working with their positioning in order to achieve competitiveness in the re-regulated pharmacy market. This is studied through a theoretical framework that demonstrates five forces that affects the competitiveness in an industry, the five-force model by Michael Porter.The thesis is a qualitative case study where data collection was done through interviews, literature, articles, websites and internal information from Medstop. The data was then complied into the theoretical perspective the authors have chosen for this paper, the five-force model by Michael Porter. This model was chosen because it gives a broad description of the competition a company faces by describing five different forces that affect the competition within a branch. The fact was collected on the basis of the marketing strategy positioning, and the essay is written from a business perspective.Our cunclusions are that the pharmacy chain Medstop are in their initial positioning and has chosen to position itself on the basis of their core values; credibility, safety and security.